Brooklyn Lester here from Masaya Nicaragua… boy has it been a long day. We woke up bright and early in Managua ready to start the day… first lesson quickly learned- there’s Canadian time and then there’s Nicaraguan time. Our driver showed up on Nicaraguan time so our start to the day was a bit delayed. We hit a slight hitch in the road when our driver did show up and discovered he was unqualified to drive the 16 passenger van rented for the duration of our trip.

What do you do when you’re in a foreign country with a van and no driver? You get the qualified bilingual Canadian driver to press the gas while the unqualified driver steers. (I’m kidding- though it was a suggestion by one of the men). On a more serious note Trevor Main did drive us around Nicaragua for the day and yes we are all still accounted for.

On our way to our hotel in Masaya we made a detour to the home of Edgar Cordoba where he invited us so he could give us a proper welcoming. Edgar told us many cool stories about their church and their own version of “Greater Things” they have going on. He told us Nicaraguans like to talk a lot and my dad told Edgar my mom must be Nicaraguan.

Nicaragua 2014 Day 01 DSC_0020 cropped 200x110We finally made it to the hotel and walked a few blocks to a neat Mexican/ Nicaraguan restaurant for lunch (though by the time we got our food and left it was 4:00 qualifying more as “lupper”- lunch and supper). We headed back to the hotel where we met up with Elsie, our translator. The men headed out to buy tools and check out the work site while the girls stayed back to organize the kids program which we start tomorrow.

Though Melanie and I had just eaten, Elsie hadn’t, so we decided to walk up to a restaurant so she could grab a quick bite… 30 minutes later after discovering that all the restaurants are closed we ended back at the restaurant we had left just two hours earlier. At least we got the cool experience of wandering around the streets of Masaya.

The culture here is absolutely mesmerizing- something everybody should experience at least once in their lifetime. The men arrived back shortly after us and we all walked down to the community park for a much needed refreshing treat- Ice Cream!!! The heat here is something else, not that I’m complaining or anything but I have a feeling cold showers are going to be a highlight of this trip.

At the park we came across some kids from a local church weaving cool shapes and objects. A few of us bought some including me but that was mostly because the 6 year old making them was the absolute cutest! It’s crazy how even though I’m unable to communicate with the kids here they still find a way to make you fall in love with them. I would say the hardest part of this trip at this point is resisting the urge to bring these kids home with me… though that would be quite the surprise for my mom… not sure how she (or the authorities) would take that one.

It’s been an amazing day and I’m super excited for what’s to come (an entire trip of hanging out with adorable kids woot). We thank you all for your prayers and I can’t wait to see what God has in hold for the rest of our trip!

Hugs

Brooklyn

PS: Pictures will be posted in the next post…